The District Charles County Public School has become one of the fastest growing counties in the state of Maryland. The our school system has a total of 36 schools which is broken into 21 elementary schools, 8 middle schools and 7 high schools. We also have 4 learning centers which include ones for behavior, special needs, etc. These schools accommodate various ages from 3’s programs to 12th grade. As of September 30, 2014 unofficial enrollment Charles County has 26,258 students enrolled in their schools. The breakdown of the student’s demographic looks like this in the graph below. (retrieved from http://www.ccboe.com/, on 3/3/15)
Charles County employs a total of 3,481 people within the school system. 2,014 of those employees are teachers the others are split between support staff, technical employees, and administrators. When it comes to the teachers within the county 38.4% of the teachers have standard professional certifications and 58% have advanced professional certification. (retrieved from http://www.ccboe.com/, on 3/3/15) When it comes to technology within Charles County has a lot to offer if the school is a Title I school they have more to offer because of certain grant money to be used towards technology. With the addition of the new Science on a Sphere and Telepresence technology center within St. Charles High School (retrieved from http://www.ccboe.com, on 3/3/15) there are many different types of technologies at the reach of the students.
Smart Boards
LCD Projectors both mounted and some on carts
I Pads
Smart Tables
Projector Cameras
Lap tops carts
MP3 players
Airlines
This is just to name a few of the different types of technology available in Charles County.
The Problems There are many problems when it comes to technology within Charles County that should be looked at and addressed to help teachers and students within their schools. After surveying the teachers in my school and some that I know from other schools in the county I was able to find out many of the problems and needs that the district needs. (personal survey, 3/5/15)
Not all schools have access to the different types of technologies due to funding. It seems that if a school is not a Title I school or have a big special education program within their school they do not get access to as much technology then those schools that have these programs. This is difficult for teachers who move from these types of schools into schools that are not as equipped as others because they get used and already have lessons that implement different types of technologies that help teach difficult concepts.
With the change to the new testing systems the school system has not updated computers or networks to be able to handle the stress of the new all online testing systems. They are making the big push to have these online testing sites without the computer labs or portable labs to be able to handle this much online testing. Also not enough power cords and batteries to keep all lap tops running smoothly and efficiently between teacher lap tops and student lap tops.
Some people think that the whole system is inconsistent within purchasing the cheapest programs to fit the needs of the curriculums, testing programs, and instructional programs that are beneficial. They do not take in the suggestions of teachers that have found programs that fit into the new curriculum or fit the needs of the students as much as they should. Most teachers think that the decisions come from those who are not in the classroom anymore and many times purchase technology or programs that cannot be effectively integrated into a normal school day.
There is a lack of teacher knowledge of how to use the resources that are available to them or even where to find the resources that are available to them. Also time is a huge factor, teachers do not have adequate time to explore or learn how to use the different types of programs or technologies with ease to be able to implement into their classroom or into their lesson plans.
The Needs Since the emphasis of technology being implemented into the classroom as well as into the County testing the funding to increase the technology within all schools needs to be addressed. However, with the increase of technology will mean the increase of training that will be needed for the teachers to be comfortable with the different types of technologies being purchased or used for teaching and testing reasons. They are using lap tops and computers to test from 3rd grade to 5th grade but they also use an I Pad to test the Kindergarten students on the new KRA also known as the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. It is only time that all grades will be doing some sort of assessment on the computer, laptop or even an I Pad. It is important to make sure all teachers in the county are comfortable with these types of technologies and also have them available to all schools.
Teachers need trainings for the different types of technologies that are available in the County.
Teachers need adequate time to explore and create lessons that will be implemented in their classroom right away.
Early childhood is being expected to have their students learn skills and concepts that are not concrete which is hard for young students so teachers need to find fun and interactive ways to teach those skills for their students.
Trainings need to be for different levels for the different types of technologies so if teachers feel comfortable with a certain type of technology they could learn more about the technology and not the basics.
There should be trainings for teachers on how to create and use blogs, websites, wikis, etc within their classroom.
There should be trainings about what kind of technology is available for students with special needs for new teachers or that have been purchased for the county.
Within the trainings teachers should also be taught how to fix problems when they arise.
Funding needs to be put aside for all schools to get caught up with those who have the funding through Title I or special education. Or teachers need to know ways of finding funding for their schools through grants or other organizations.
Computers and networks need to be updated before all county testing is implemented so computers won’t freeze or crash during important testing
The county needs to make sure that all technology is available for every school so all students have equal opportunity to learn in this technology age.
After viewing all of the answers from my survey given (personal survey, 3/5/15) through my school and some teachers I know that are teaching in other schools throughout the county as well as conversations I have had with other teachers in early childhood I have been able to figure out that the way we could help the needs of our district is implementing trainings that cover many different types of technologies that are available. Our district sends out trainings that are available for teachers but it only is beginners in using SMART board and Microsoft Office. As listed above there is so much more technology available in our district for teachers to implement that I feel that there needs to be more trainings for the different technologies as well as more of intermediate trainings for those who are already comfortable with the basics of SMART board. We also need more ways of making concepts or skills that can be boring or non-concrete for students and making them more interactive or fun for young students. My focus on the training will be on showing teachers how to use multi types of technologies to make learning more interactive and fun for students. I want them to explore and create items for their classroom with using SMART board, SMART tables, I Pads, and desktop/lap top computers. Within these trainings each day they would be working with a different type of technology with a three day training dealing with SMART board and SMART table because most SMART files can transfer from the SMART board to the SMART tables. These three days will build onto each other from the Exchange to the SMART table.
The Audience These trainings would be more focused on elementary teachers especially those in early childhood because they are the ones building the foundation in a child’s education. However, I would also accept those who teach in the upper grades 1st-5th because many of the activities can be changed to easily fit those of the upper grade. Also I do know that these types of technology are most easily available to elementary schools then the middle to high school students. As addressed above most of the teachers have their standard professional certification but there are more that have their Advance professional certification. Most of the teachers that work in elementary schools would be primarily female but there are some males that could be in these trainings. When teachers sign up before the training begins a survey would be sent out to see how long teachers have been teaching in the county, how comfortable they are with the certain technologies and what has been their exposure to the technologies whether it has been personal or in the classroom.
Goals/Objectives The main goal of the trainings is to encompass all of the different types of technologies and make sure that teachers know what is available within the county as well as get used to using them and being able to incorporate them into their classroom with ease. The objective is to make those who are not comfortable with them to be at least comfortable enough to implement them slowly and for those who already comfortable with the technology be able to take them to the next level within their classroom.
Teachers will learn how to use SMART Exchange to share or create new files to fit their students’ needs.
Teachers will know the basic uses of SMART board tools to create pages.
Teachers will learn how to transfer SMART files used on the SMART board to the SMART table for implementation.
Teachers will know the basics of using I Pads within a lesson and create a list of apps that are appropriate for different age levels.
Teachers will learn and come up with lists of interactive websites to fit the new curriculum to use computers/lap tops within their classroom.
Content
Courses
Descriptions
SMART Exchange for Beginners in Elementary Schools
This is a course where teachers will sign up for a SMART Exchange account and search for files that they could take back and utilize within their classroom.
SMART Exchange for Intermediate in Elementary Schools
This is a course where teachers could come with a list of lessons where they can find examples already in the system to manipulate to fit their students’ needs.
SMART board for Beginners in Elementary Schools
This is a course where teachers will learn how to use the basic tools to create and manipulate pages to use for lessons within their classroom.
SMART board for Intermediate in Elementary Schools
This is a course teachers will bring in their own pages they already created and learn how to add more interactive features from embedding photos or making animated features onto the pages.
SMART table for Beginners in Elementary Schools
This is a course where the teachers will learn the basics of what the SMART table has to offer, how to transfer files from their computer to the table to use within the classroom.
SMART Table for Intermediate in Elementary Schools
This is a course where teachers that have used the table and bring their own files to share with other teachers. They will learn how to use more enhancements to their pages they have already made.
I Pads for Beginners in Elementary Schools
This is a course where teachers can explore with what I Pads have to offer for regular education students as well as students with special needs. Also exploring some apps that are available for use.
I Pads for Intermediate in Elementary Schools
This is a course where teachers can bring a list of apps they have used within their classroom. Teachers can share apps they have already use and how they implemented them within their classroom.
Computers/Lap Tops for Beginners in Elementary Schools
This is a course where teachers can learn about the different types software that are available within the county. Also how they fit into their curriculum and how they can use them within their classroom.
Computers/Lap Tops for Intermediate in Elementary Schools
This is a course where teachers can bring lists of educational websites and interactive games they use within their classroom. Also how they could set up a small lap top lab within their classroom for interactive activities like blogs, wikis, websites, etc.
Instructional Strategies When teaching the content to the teachers it will be hands on type of training where the teachers will have the opportunity to explore with each type of hardware. We will be using a LCD projection to use a walk through type of activities especially when it comes with the SMART Exchange and SMART board creation activities. We will find YouTube walk through that give more in detail about how to use the different types of tools and interactive pieces to put on the pages. We will also have the I Pads, SMART tables, SMART boards, and computers/lap tops available for each teacher to work on. There will be a list created throughout the class to have a written database to go back to afterwards so they can see how the apps or websites can fit into their curriculum. There will also be time for teachers to work together to create and share their pages they have created and get feedback on those they have made and how to make the lesson better. They will also be given zip drives they can save their work onto so they can take work back to their school as well as once the training is over all SMART files that were created and lists of apps and websites will be burned onto a CD that will be sent to the teachers after the training is given.
Technology Workshop Lesson Plan
Your Name: Melanie Scott
Workshop Title: SMART Exchange for Intermediates
Day # 1
Subject: SMART Exchange for Elementary
Prerequisite Knowledge: Basic logging into SMART Exchange, how to look up files, and how to save them to your account. Teachers should bring in a list of themes, concepts or skills that they would want to find pages for.
Content: Within this day the teachers will practice re-logging into SMART Exchange and learn more about searching for new activities and also how to upload their own projects to share with other teachers through the Exchange.
Objectives:
Teachers will go over the basics of what SMART Exchange has to offer.
Teachers will use their pre-determined list of themes, concepts, and skills they want to find pages for and use the Exchange to search for pages already created.
Teachers will learn how to upload their own pages to the Exchange to share with other teachers.
Teachers will save the pages they found onto their zip drive to use in their classroom.
Instructions:
Instructor will introduce SMART Exchange using the video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj3CjdW_Dfw , go through up to 1:35 point and this will remind those who already have an account how to login but also walks through those who do not have an account how to sign up for an account. Make sure to give those people the time to sign up and get sign into the system before moving on.
Continue the video until 3:22 and have the teachers search the lap tops or computers they are working on and find the download folder on that computer. (To make it easier the instructor should already know how to find it and could also use the LCD projector to walk the teachers through this part to find it together.)
Finish the video which shows a little bit on how to edit the pages found but let them know we will go into more detail with this the following day once they find some pages that they feel would be effective when used in their classroom.
Have the teachers pull out their pre-determined list of concepts, skills or themes that they want to find pages for.
Give the teachers time to search through SMART Exchange to find pages that meet the needs of their students, their grade level, concepts/skills/themes, and also those that would be easily implemented into their classroom.
After awhile have the teachers reconvene to go over some of the SMART pages they found that they believe would bring the most to the skills/concept/theme that they are wanting to use within their classroom.
Give each teacher a chance to talk about one that also they found that they felt had some promise to be a good page but could use some changes to it to make it stronger. Also have them talk about how they would change the page to make it a stronger page.
Make the teachers save some of the page on their zip drive and list on their page the one they want to change to make it a stronger page during the next training.
Materials:
One on One lap tops for teachers use
Zip drives (which will be given at the beginning for the teachers to take with them afterwards)
Note taking page to flag the pages on their zip drive they want to do more work on during the next SMART board training.
Evaluation:
Through observations by the trainers that the teachers are able to log in and search through SMART Exchange with ease.
Teachers are able to find pages that are adequate for the skills, concepts and themes they want to use within a lesson in their classroom.
Teachers are able to find pages that are not as strong and can figure out ways to improve on the pages.
Technology Workshop Lesson Plan
Your Name: Melanie Scott
Workshop Title: SMART Board for Intermediates
Day # 2
Subject: SMART Board for Elementary
Prerequisite Knowledge: Basic knowledge of tools, how to create a basic page using SMART files. Teacher should bring in the zip drive given at the training before with the pre-saved pages from SMART Exchange.
Content: Within this workshop they go back over the basics that SMART Board has to offer to create pages. They will also go through the Lesson Activity Tool Kit and learn how to create those lessons using the pre-made activities.
Objectives:
Teachers will go through the Basics of SMART notebook to create pages.
Teachers will explore the Lesson Activity Tool Kit to find activities that can be modified to meet the needs of the students.
Teachers will create pages using Lesson Activity Tool Kit that is available.
Teachers will also take the files found from SMART Exchange and change the files to fit the needs of their skills, concept and themes.
Instructions:
Instructor will go over the basics of the SMART notebook to refresh the teachers of what can be there to manipulate and create pages for their classroom.
After going over the basics the instructor will show the video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SnHRSJ5Vno this video goes over what the Lesson Activity Tools has to offer.
After the video have the teachers explore the Lesson Activity Tools themselves and have them find activity outlines that they could modify to create the pages for their classroom.
Have the teachers create a couple pages that they can use in their classroom. They will explore with the Lesson Activity Tools that they were introduced to and they will use the skills, concepts and themes they want to use in their classroom.
After awhile have the teachers share their work that they had been working on with the group. Have the teachers explain what concept, theme or skill they were going for and also if they changed a page they already found have them explain how and why they changed the page from the original.
Each teacher will get feedback from the other teachers so they know how they could have made their pages stronger or what the teachers like about their pages.
As each teacher comes up to present the instructor will save the pages made on a shared file that every teacher could have access to and at the end of the class each teacher will upload the file onto their zip drive so they have each of the pages that were created by the other teachers.
Teacher will talk about the best ways of incorporate the pages into their classrooms. They will share how they do it and also some problems they face when using it and how they can fix it.
Note taking page from the training before so they know which pages they want to create or modify
Evaluation:
Through observations the instructor can see that the teachers are able to use the different tools and search engines within the SMART Notebook with ease.
Teachers will create a page from scratch and change an already pre-made template or activity found through Lesson Activity Tool Kit or SMART Exchange.
Technology Workshop Lesson Plan
Your Name: Melanie Scott
Workshop Title: SMART Tables for Intermediates
Day # 3
Subject: SMART Tables for Elementary
Prerequisite Knowledge: Basic knowledge to what SMART tables have to offer. They also will have their zip drive with some of their pages that they created.
Content: Within this workshop they will go back over the basics that the SMART table has to offer. They will also watch videos to see how to a SMART table within the classroom. They will also use the lap tops to search for SMART table activities that are already made and also use those that they have made to transfer to the SMART tables and how to do this.
Objectives:
Teachers will go through the Basics of SMART tables and what is already available on the table itself.
Teachers will go online to find already made pages that are made for SMART tables and save them on their zip drive to transfer.
Teachers will learn how to implement the SMART table within their classroom and what is needed to for set up.
Teachers will also explore with the SMART table and share their files they found with each other.
Instructions:
The instructor breaks down the teachers into 4 groups so they can work together onto the 4 SMART tables that are available for them to use.
The instructor will show the video from Youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaUxBkkvcmE and this will show the basics of what the SMART table has to offer and talks a bit about the table itself. This will allow the instructor to go back over the basics of the table.
Teachers can explore with the already pre-loaded pages to see what a SMART table activity looks like.
The teachers will then use the internet to look up for already made SMART table files that can be transferred onto the table and save it to their zip drive. They will also look at the pages they created the day before and pick which ones they want to try to transfer to the SMART table.
After the teachers find and pick the pages they want to use on the table they will share with their team members at their tables to show which ones they feel would be appropriate and why they would want to use them in their classroom and how.
After a while of exploring the table the instructor will get everyone back together and show the video from YouTube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661AHysFoM4 to see how other people use the table within their classroom and how they are important for student use.
Teachers will talk about the importance of the table can be what other then working on the skills that the students can get out of using the table.
Note taking page to flag the pages on their zip drive they want to do more work on during the last SMART board training. As well as those they saw during the exploration with the other teachers.
Evaluation:
Through observations the instructor can see that the teachers are able to use the SMART table with ease without much trouble.
Teachers are able to find pages that they could use on the SMART table online and also they are able to transfer the files they created or found onto the table.
Teachers can explain what the SMART tables have to offer their students which are not just the concepts, skills, or themes they made the pages for.
Technology Workshop Lesson Plan
Your Name: Melanie Scott
Workshop Title: I Pads for Intermediates
Day # 4
Subject: I Pads for Elementary
Prerequisite Knowledge: Basic knowledge of how to use an I Pad and some knowledge of what kinds of apps are out there for teaching purposes. Also have some apps that they believe would be appropriate to share with the other teachers to share.
Content: Within this workshop they go back over the basics of the I Pads and all of the settings within the I Pad. They will also go over how to upload apps to carts and I Pads using the MAC book station. They will also learn how to implement I Pads into their classroom with ease.
Objectives:
Teachers will go through the Basics of the I Pads.
Teachers will go online to find some good apps that would be appropriate for their students and also cost efficient.
Teachers will learn how upload apps to the cart using the Mac Book Station.
Teachers will also explore with the I Pads and the apps that are already uploaded to the existing apps and the new ones found by the group.
Instructions:
The instructor will share the I Pad cart that is available to use and hand out individual I Pads and go back over the basics that the I Pad has to offer. They will go over some of the apps that are already uploaded and go over what are some of the things teachers within this school use and what for.
The teachers can use the lap tops to search for a list of other apps that they would find appropriate for their students and come up with a list that they would be interested.
The teacher will give the list of some of the free apps the teachers come up with and add them to the I Pads.
While they are being uploaded then the instructor will show them the video from YouTube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vl7cti0WEg that talks about ways to implement I Pads into the classroom.
The teachers will talk about ways they believe that the I Pads can be implemented the positives and the negatives to it.
While teachers discuss what are the positives and the limitations to using I Pads and what students can get out of them.
After all of the apps are uploaded to the I Pads allow the teachers to explore the newly added apps to the I Pads to see if they believe that they would be good enough to add to their list.
While teachers are exploring the apps the instructor will add all of the names of the apps given into a Word document and placed into the folder where the teachers can upload the list onto their zip drive to take home.
Note taking page to flag the pages on their zip drive they want to do more work on during the last SMART board training. As well as those they saw during the exploration with the other teachers.
Evaluation:
Through observations the instructor can see that the teachers are able to use the I Pads with ease.
Teachers are able to find appropriate apps that they believe will be beneficial to their students and their skills, concepts, and themes.
Teachers can explain what the I Pads have to offer and what are the positives and the limitations to them.
Technology Workshop Lesson Plan
Your Name: Melanie Scott
Workshop Title: Computer/Lap Tops for Intermediates
Day # 5
Subject: Computers/Lap Tops for Elementary
Prerequisite Knowledge: Basic knowledge of using a computer or lap top within your classroom and some educational/interactive websites to utilize within your lessons. Teachers should bring in a list of education/interactive websites that they have used or feel work well within their classroom.
Content: Within this workshop they go back over the basics of using computers and lap tops within the classroom. With the new testing students are unable to go to computer labs as often as they should so this workshop is to show how to create a working computer/lap top lab within your own classroom. They will also come up with and share a list of the educational/interactive websites that can be implemented within their classroom.
Objectives:
Teachers will go through the Basics of using the computers and Lap Tops.
Teachers will learn how to create a mobile lap top classroom that can be used within their school.
Teachers will learn how to use computers as another way of teaching in their classroom.
Teachers will also explore and find educational/interactive websites to use in their classroom.
Instructions:
The instructor will show the teachers the lap top carts that can be used to use as a mobile classroom to use when needed in the classroom.
They will go over how the cart works and how to upkeep the lap tops to make them working correctly.
The instructor will then show the video from YouTube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXbMDUTTWWQ this shows a school that has implemented more than one mobile lap top cart within their school.
The teachers will go explore their lap tops and find websites that are educational based or even interactive games that can go with their skills, concepts or themes that they want to enhance.
After awhile of finding some games or websites the teachers will share with each other and talk about why they believe these sites are effective ones to use in the classroom.
While the teachers are sharing the websites the other teachers can log on to the site and explore the site with them as they are talking about why they like the site and they can see firsthand to see what the website has to offer.
While the teachers are sharing their websites the instructor will make a list of the sites being shared and place that one the shared folder that the teachers can upload to their zip drive at the end.
Materials:
Lap Top cart with 30 lap tops for one on one use for teachers
Note taking page to write down websites that they feel are appropriate to use in their classroom.
Evaluation:
Through observations the instructor can see that the teachers are able to use the lap tops with ease.
Teachers are able to figure out how to set up the mobile classroom with little to no problems.
Teachers are able to find appropriate educational and interactive websites that they believe will be beneficial to their students and their skills, concepts, and themes.
Teachers are able to talk about how the websites they found are beneficial to students within the district.
Materials Agenda for SMART Board for Intermediates 1.) Open SMART notebook
3.) Explore the Lesson Activity Tools and find an activity outlines that you can modify to fit your lesson.
4.) Create a couple pages from scratch as well as a couple from using the Lesson Activity Tool kits. Write below what pages you created by which one is the one you would want to share first to the last one.
a.
b.
c.
d.
5.) Share your pages you created and explain what skill, concept, or theme you were going for. What grade level this page could be used for and also if you used an already pre-made one from SMART Exchange talk about how you made the page stronger. Those not sharing write down names of pages you are interested in using yourself.
a. _
b. _
c. _
d. _
e. ___
6.) Each of you will upload the made pages from everyone in the class to your zip drive from the shared file on your computer.
Example of a made SMART board page. This is an example of taking a memory game template to make a memory game for rhyming words.
Field Test I would ask my administration if I could practice my training with the staff at my school to try out the technology within the school and get their feedback on what needs to be fixed. I would try to use some of our professional development days so that I am not taking the teacher’s personal time but also hope that I could help the teachers within my school as well as see what needs to be fixed within the training. I would want to use my school because we have all the necessary technology available for the training. This would be a great time to make sure that all technology is working properly and make sure things are set up. I would give them an evaluation on how the trainings could be better, what worked, what did not work and how I could be stronger as a trainer. I would also get a beginning list of apps and websites from them so there is something to start from and we could add to the written database that will be given to the trainees at the end of the training.
Revision After getting the feedback from my fellow teachers I would take their notes into consideration as well as make notes of which SMART tables, I Pads, and computers/lap tops had difficulties troubleshooting or not as user friendly as the others. I would want to make sure that all technology being used in the training is the best of the best that we have available. For example, at our school we have 3 I Pad carts that have 30 I Pads in each and I would want to use the cart that works the best and does not have glitches. I would also take the notes of websites and apps that the staff came up with so I would already have those available as example for my training and already download some of the apps to the I Pads so the running list can already have some ready to go and during the training we can add onto the list to make the written database bigger.
Evaluations At the end of each workshop I will look at the pages that they created to see if and how they implemented the different types of tools on the SMART pages that have been introduced to them. Also I will listen to the discussions to see if they are learning what we are trying to get them to take away from the training. Also as I walk around the classroom while the teachers are working I will take notes on the parts that teachers are struggling with and see if they are using the skills I have taught them throughout the workshop. This will be a way to evaluate while the workshop is going on as well as when it is over to see the work that has been accomplished. The SMART pages will be saved on a shared file on the computer so this will make it easy for me to go back after the workshop is done to browse through the pages to see if they are fitting the needs of each classroom of the teacher that made it.
Summative Evaluation At the end of the workshops each teacher will be given an evaluation form where they can talk about the positives and the negatives about the workshop itself. I would also have them write about the difficulties they had with any of the technology being used so I would take notes on how to use or use different carts for the next time the workshop is given. I would also personally wait about a month or so and email all of the teachers that took the class and see how the training has helped them within their classroom. I would send out a survey to them to see if they are implementing more technology since the workshop, if they have seen a change in their students’ abilities, and also if they are more comfortable being able to implement technology within their classroom. I would also ask to those who do not have these types of technologies available I would want to see if any of them have approached their administration to see if they could find a way to get one of the technologies that they learned about into their school. Also see what they feel is the most important reason they felt that their school truly could use this type of technology. The main question I would ask in the survey given after the fact is, “Would you ever recommend this training to any one in your school?” I think this would give me a better idea if the teachers got a lot out of the training and thought it was worth their time. The reason this would be a good question is one that the survey is anonymous and they could truly speak their mind.
Budget
Expense
Quantity
Cost
Number of Hours
Total Cost
Workshop Instructor
1
$40.00 per hour
25 hours
$1,000.00
Participant Stipend
30
$30.00 per hour
25 hours
$22,500.00
Zip Drives (Office Depot, Item #801187)
30
$14.99 each
n/a
$449.70
Expense
Quantity
Cost
Total Cost
Venue Eva Turner Elem.
5 days
$0.00 (free through the county)
$0
SMART Board LCD Projector
5 days 1 of each
$0.00 (already at school)
$0
SMART table
5 days 4 of each
$0.00 (already at school)
$0
I Pad cart With 30 I Pads
5 days
$0.00 (already at school)
$0
Lap Top cart With 30 Lap Tops
5 days
$0.00 (already at school)
$0
Total Cost for Workshop
$23,949.70
Conclusion I have never had to do something like this but never thought that so much had to go into when thinking about a district plan and I think learning what other teachers think within my school and in my county was very eye opening to me. There were things that I already knew were problems and needs in my district especially when it came to availability and money because I feel many districts have those same problems. I believe doing a survey where the teachers could be more open and honest about how they feel this made me be able to truly dig deep into what is needed especially in an elementary school setting. I believe when it comes to trainings that it is important for the trainers to not just get feedback the day of the training but check back in to the teachers down the road. It is important to see if they took anything that you taught them and implemented it within their classroom or if they just walked away and forgot everything that was taught to them. Good training is not what is taught but it is implemented in the classroom afterwards effectively.
My District Technology Training Plan
The District
Charles County Public School has become one of the fastest growing counties in the state of Maryland. The our school system has a total of 36 schools which is broken into 21 elementary schools, 8 middle schools and 7 high schools. We also have 4 learning centers which include ones for behavior, special needs, etc. These schools accommodate various ages from 3’s programs to 12th grade. As of September 30, 2014 unofficial enrollment Charles County has 26,258 students enrolled in their schools. The breakdown of the student’s demographic looks like this in the graph below. (retrieved from http://www.ccboe.com/, on 3/3/15)
Charles County employs a total of 3,481 people within the school system. 2,014 of those employees are teachers the others are split between support staff, technical employees, and administrators. When it comes to the teachers within the county 38.4% of the teachers have standard professional certifications and 58% have advanced professional certification. (retrieved from http://www.ccboe.com/, on 3/3/15)
When it comes to technology within Charles County has a lot to offer if the school is a Title I school they have more to offer because of certain grant money to be used towards technology. With the addition of the new Science on a Sphere and Telepresence technology center within St. Charles High School (retrieved from http://www.ccboe.com, on 3/3/15) there are many different types of technologies at the reach of the students.
- Smart Boards
- LCD Projectors both mounted and some on carts
- I Pads
- Smart Tables
- Projector Cameras
- Lap tops carts
- MP3 players
- Airlines
This is just to name a few of the different types of technology available in Charles County.The Problems
There are many problems when it comes to technology within Charles County that should be looked at and addressed to help teachers and students within their schools. After surveying the teachers in my school and some that I know from other schools in the county I was able to find out many of the problems and needs that the district needs. (personal survey, 3/5/15)
The Needs
Since the emphasis of technology being implemented into the classroom as well as into the County testing the funding to increase the technology within all schools needs to be addressed. However, with the increase of technology will mean the increase of training that will be needed for the teachers to be comfortable with the different types of technologies being purchased or used for teaching and testing reasons. They are using lap tops and computers to test from 3rd grade to 5th grade but they also use an I Pad to test the Kindergarten students on the new KRA also known as the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. It is only time that all grades will be doing some sort of assessment on the computer, laptop or even an I Pad. It is important to make sure all teachers in the county are comfortable with these types of technologies and also have them available to all schools.
- Teachers need trainings for the different types of technologies that are available in the County.
- Teachers need adequate time to explore and create lessons that will be implemented in their classroom right away.
- Early childhood is being expected to have their students learn skills and concepts that are not concrete which is hard for young students so teachers need to find fun and interactive ways to teach those skills for their students.
- Trainings need to be for different levels for the different types of technologies so if teachers feel comfortable with a certain type of technology they could learn more about the technology and not the basics.
- There should be trainings for teachers on how to create and use blogs, websites, wikis, etc within their classroom.
- There should be trainings about what kind of technology is available for students with special needs for new teachers or that have been purchased for the county.
- Within the trainings teachers should also be taught how to fix problems when they arise.
- Funding needs to be put aside for all schools to get caught up with those who have the funding through Title I or special education. Or teachers need to know ways of finding funding for their schools through grants or other organizations.
- Computers and networks need to be updated before all county testing is implemented so computers won’t freeze or crash during important testing
- The county needs to make sure that all technology is available for every school so all students have equal opportunity to learn in this technology age.
After viewing all of the answers from my survey given (personal survey, 3/5/15) through my school and some teachers I know that are teaching in other schools throughout the county as well as conversations I have had with other teachers in early childhood I have been able to figure out that the way we could help the needs of our district is implementing trainings that cover many different types of technologies that are available. Our district sends out trainings that are available for teachers but it only is beginners in using SMART board and Microsoft Office. As listed above there is so much more technology available in our district for teachers to implement that I feel that there needs to be more trainings for the different technologies as well as more of intermediate trainings for those who are already comfortable with the basics of SMART board. We also need more ways of making concepts or skills that can be boring or non-concrete for students and making them more interactive or fun for young students.My focus on the training will be on showing teachers how to use multi types of technologies to make learning more interactive and fun for students. I want them to explore and create items for their classroom with using SMART board, SMART tables, I Pads, and desktop/lap top computers. Within these trainings each day they would be working with a different type of technology with a three day training dealing with SMART board and SMART table because most SMART files can transfer from the SMART board to the SMART tables. These three days will build onto each other from the Exchange to the SMART table.
The Audience
These trainings would be more focused on elementary teachers especially those in early childhood because they are the ones building the foundation in a child’s education. However, I would also accept those who teach in the upper grades 1st-5th because many of the activities can be changed to easily fit those of the upper grade. Also I do know that these types of technology are most easily available to elementary schools then the middle to high school students. As addressed above most of the teachers have their standard professional certification but there are more that have their Advance professional certification. Most of the teachers that work in elementary schools would be primarily female but there are some males that could be in these trainings. When teachers sign up before the training begins a survey would be sent out to see how long teachers have been teaching in the county, how comfortable they are with the certain technologies and what has been their exposure to the technologies whether it has been personal or in the classroom.
Goals/Objectives
The main goal of the trainings is to encompass all of the different types of technologies and make sure that teachers know what is available within the county as well as get used to using them and being able to incorporate them into their classroom with ease. The objective is to make those who are not comfortable with them to be at least comfortable enough to implement them slowly and for those who already comfortable with the technology be able to take them to the next level within their classroom.
Content
Instructional Strategies
When teaching the content to the teachers it will be hands on type of training where the teachers will have the opportunity to explore with each type of hardware. We will be using a LCD projection to use a walk through type of activities especially when it comes with the SMART Exchange and SMART board creation activities. We will find YouTube walk through that give more in detail about how to use the different types of tools and interactive pieces to put on the pages.
We will also have the I Pads, SMART tables, SMART boards, and computers/lap tops available for each teacher to work on. There will be a list created throughout the class to have a written database to go back to afterwards so they can see how the apps or websites can fit into their curriculum. There will also be time for teachers to work together to create and share their pages they have created and get feedback on those they have made and how to make the lesson better. They will also be given zip drives they can save their work onto so they can take work back to their school as well as once the training is over all SMART files that were created and lists of apps and websites will be burned onto a CD that will be sent to the teachers after the training is given.
Melanie Scott
SMART Exchange for Intermediates
SMART Exchange for Elementary
Basic logging into SMART Exchange, how to look up files, and how to save them to your account.
Teachers should bring in a list of themes, concepts or skills that they would want to find pages for.
Within this day the teachers will practice re-logging into SMART Exchange and learn more about searching for new activities and also how to upload their own projects to share with other teachers through the Exchange.
Melanie Scott
SMART Board for Intermediates
SMART Board for Elementary
Basic knowledge of tools, how to create a basic page using SMART files.
Teacher should bring in the zip drive given at the training before with the pre-saved pages from SMART Exchange.
Within this workshop they go back over the basics that SMART Board has to offer to create pages. They will also go through the Lesson Activity Tool Kit and learn how to create those lessons using the pre-made activities.
Melanie Scott
SMART Tables for Intermediates
SMART Tables for Elementary
Basic knowledge to what SMART tables have to offer.
They also will have their zip drive with some of their pages that they created.
Within this workshop they will go back over the basics that the SMART table has to offer. They will also watch videos to see how to a SMART table within the classroom. They will also use the lap tops to search for SMART table activities that are already made and also use those that they have made to transfer to the SMART tables and how to do this.
Melanie Scott
I Pads for Intermediates
I Pads for Elementary
Basic knowledge of how to use an I Pad and some knowledge of what kinds of apps are out there for teaching purposes.
Also have some apps that they believe would be appropriate to share with the other teachers to share.
Within this workshop they go back over the basics of the I Pads and all of the settings within the I Pad. They will also go over how to upload apps to carts and I Pads using the MAC book station. They will also learn how to implement I Pads into their classroom with ease.
Melanie Scott
Computer/Lap Tops for Intermediates
Computers/Lap Tops for Elementary
Basic knowledge of using a computer or lap top within your classroom and some educational/interactive websites to utilize within your lessons.
Teachers should bring in a list of education/interactive websites that they have used or feel work well within their classroom.
Within this workshop they go back over the basics of using computers and lap tops within the classroom. With the new testing students are unable to go to computer labs as often as they should so this workshop is to show how to create a working computer/lap top lab within your own classroom. They will also come up with and share a list of the educational/interactive websites that can be implemented within their classroom.
Materials
Agenda for SMART Board for Intermediates
1.) Open SMART notebook
2.) Go to http://www.youtube.com and watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SnHRSJ5Vno and learn about the Lesson Activity Tools write some things you learned and want to work with below.
3.) Explore the Lesson Activity Tools and find an activity outlines that you can modify to fit your lesson.
4.) Create a couple pages from scratch as well as a couple from using the Lesson Activity Tool kits. Write below what pages you created by which one is the one you would want to share first to the last one.
5.) Share your pages you created and explain what skill, concept, or theme you were going for. What grade level this page could be used for and also if you used an already pre-made one from SMART Exchange talk about how you made the page stronger. Those not sharing write down names of pages you are interested in using yourself.
6.) Each of you will upload the made pages from everyone in the class to your zip drive from the shared file on your computer.
Example of a made SMART board page.
This is an example of taking a memory game template to make a memory game for rhyming words.
Field Test
I would ask my administration if I could practice my training with the staff at my school to try out the technology within the school and get their feedback on what needs to be fixed. I would try to use some of our professional development days so that I am not taking the teacher’s personal time but also hope that I could help the teachers within my school as well as see what needs to be fixed within the training. I would want to use my school because we have all the necessary technology available for the training. This would be a great time to make sure that all technology is working properly and make sure things are set up. I would give them an evaluation on how the trainings could be better, what worked, what did not work and how I could be stronger as a trainer. I would also get a beginning list of apps and websites from them so there is something to start from and we could add to the written database that will be given to the trainees at the end of the training.
Revision
After getting the feedback from my fellow teachers I would take their notes into consideration as well as make notes of which SMART tables, I Pads, and computers/lap tops had difficulties troubleshooting or not as user friendly as the others. I would want to make sure that all technology being used in the training is the best of the best that we have available. For example, at our school we have 3 I Pad carts that have 30 I Pads in each and I would want to use the cart that works the best and does not have glitches. I would also take the notes of websites and apps that the staff came up with so I would already have those available as example for my training and already download some of the apps to the I Pads so the running list can already have some ready to go and during the training we can add onto the list to make the written database bigger.
Evaluations
At the end of each workshop I will look at the pages that they created to see if and how they implemented the different types of tools on the SMART pages that have been introduced to them. Also I will listen to the discussions to see if they are learning what we are trying to get them to take away from the training. Also as I walk around the classroom while the teachers are working I will take notes on the parts that teachers are struggling with and see if they are using the skills I have taught them throughout the workshop. This will be a way to evaluate while the workshop is going on as well as when it is over to see the work that has been accomplished. The SMART pages will be saved on a shared file on the computer so this will make it easy for me to go back after the workshop is done to browse through the pages to see if they are fitting the needs of each classroom of the teacher that made it.
Summative Evaluation
At the end of the workshops each teacher will be given an evaluation form where they can talk about the positives and the negatives about the workshop itself. I would also have them write about the difficulties they had with any of the technology being used so I would take notes on how to use or use different carts for the next time the workshop is given.
I would also personally wait about a month or so and email all of the teachers that took the class and see how the training has helped them within their classroom. I would send out a survey to them to see if they are implementing more technology since the workshop, if they have seen a change in their students’ abilities, and also if they are more comfortable being able to implement technology within their classroom. I would also ask to those who do not have these types of technologies available I would want to see if any of them have approached their administration to see if they could find a way to get one of the technologies that they learned about into their school. Also see what they feel is the most important reason they felt that their school truly could use this type of technology.
The main question I would ask in the survey given after the fact is, “Would you ever recommend this training to any one in your school?” I think this would give me a better idea if the teachers got a lot out of the training and thought it was worth their time. The reason this would be a good question is one that the survey is anonymous and they could truly speak their mind.
Budget
Hours
(Office Depot, Item #801187)
Eva Turner Elem.
(free through the county)
LCD Projector
1 of each
(already at school)
4 of each
(already at school)
With 30 I Pads
(already at school)
With 30 Lap Tops
(already at school)
Conclusion
I have never had to do something like this but never thought that so much had to go into when thinking about a district plan and I think learning what other teachers think within my school and in my county was very eye opening to me. There were things that I already knew were problems and needs in my district especially when it came to availability and money because I feel many districts have those same problems. I believe doing a survey where the teachers could be more open and honest about how they feel this made me be able to truly dig deep into what is needed especially in an elementary school setting.
I believe when it comes to trainings that it is important for the trainers to not just get feedback the day of the training but check back in to the teachers down the road. It is important to see if they took anything that you taught them and implemented it within their classroom or if they just walked away and forgot everything that was taught to them. Good training is not what is taught but it is implemented in the classroom afterwards effectively.
References
District, student and teacher demographics. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.ccboe.com on 3/3/15
Survey created from https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CDG5GZR sent 3/5/15
Survey Answers received from https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/jX9aprR_2BLhT7wwHTI94oSqkZbSR6soWJowvQmbgGEJs_3D reviewed on 3/8/15
Videos found on http://youtube.com 3/12/15